Continuing the Children’s Book Week theme, today I wanted to talk about Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars. According to Amazon, this book’s audience is grades 4-7. I don’t have any expertise in figuring out what targeted grade a book should be, but this one had enough plot twists and character development to appeal to adults as well.

That’s not to say it read like an adult novel. The allegorical aspects of the story sometimes feel like Beddor is whacking you in the head with a sledgehammer. Subtlety doesn’t appear to exist in Wonderland. Nevertheless, it was a fun read, and I’ll probably read the other two eventually (it’s billed as a trilogy; so far, only the second has been released).

Beddor basically reimagines Alice in Wonderland. In his version, Alyss is really from a parallel universe (called Wonderland) and, after a bloody coup led by her aunt that leaves her orphaned and dethroned, Alyss finds herself in England.  Despite being adopted into a good family, Alyss finds it difficult to adjust; she clings to her past in Wonderland.  Finally, she meets Charles Dodgson, who seems to believe her.  But when she reads the book, her disillusionment is so great that she resolves to give up Wonderland forever.  Instead, she becomes Alice Little.  Then, at the moment of her very successful wedding, Wonderland comes crashing back to her.  Now, back in her country, can she find within herself the power of imagination that will let her defeat her evil Aunt Redd and become the rightful queen?

 The book exceeded my expectations; I was a bit concerned that it was going to be very violent.  Don’t get me wrong-there are scenes of tremoundes violence-but the book is about more than that.  I became quite involved with Alyss and her childhood friends and caregivers; it was also fun to see Beddor take aspects of Alice in Wonderland and rework them in a whole new way.  I don’t have any particular attachment to the original-though I have read it-so I wasn’t disturbed to see a classic turned on its head.  While I could have done without quite so many dystopian aspects associated with Redd (hmmm…what colour represented Stalin again?) or the blatant lesson about using power for good v. evil, it didn’t ruin the whole book for me or anything.  All in all, a neat children’s read.